I've been a member of this board for close to 25 years. In all that time, I have responded to board posts sparingly, and I have initiated posts very rarely. And that is only interesting because of all the hours I've spent reading almost every post virtually every day.
But I feel compelled today to voice my opinion on the quagmire my family, my friends and WVU fans in general face with regards to our situation with Neal Brown.
First, I think a little of my background may be relevant. Despite not having lived in West Virginia since 1963, literally, my life began as a Mountaineer 75 years ago. Born in Morgantown, my parents both graduated from Morgantown High. My dad was a WVU student after being discharged from the Marine Corps after both WWII and Korea. We moved around the country a lot for his work - I attended elementary school in Kanawha and Mason counties, Jr. High in Philadelphia, and high school in California, with some intermediate stops also.
But no matter how far away we were, we were Mountaineers first. And I returned to attend WVU. I graduated with a BS in journalism and athletic coaching. I had classes with Jim Braxton and Bob Gresham, Curtis Price and Dave Werthman and classes taught by Dale Ramsburg, Gene Corum and Whitey Gwynne. I knew Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden, Sonny Moran and Gary MacPhearson on a personal level. And the same can be said for Mickey Furfari and Tony Constantine when I worked in the Athetic Department.
This is, unfortunately, a long way around to say I've been close to WVU athletics for a long time, and I might have some insight and a lot of interest in our current situation.
Never in my lifetime (and long before that) has WVU come even close to having "silly money". And I suspect, as many of you do, we never will. As a result those whose responsibility is to manage what money we have must be extremely careful. Was it a mistake for Shane Lyons to sign Neal's first extension? Without a doubt. Was the second extension a mistake? It could be argued so, but maybe it was a chance to help a bad situation that turned out wrong. Either way, this is where we are now.
However, to fire Neal now means we we will have to come up with money to cover his buyout, the assistants' salaries for the rest of this year and next year, maybe a buyout to the new coach's current school, his salary for next year and the new staff's salaries. Unless one of us wins the next Powerball, I can't see how all of that happens.
All of this is to say, even though many, myself included, think we need a change from Neal, the bottom line is we cannot afford it at this time. Next year I think we will be in a much better position financially to make the change. And if we withhold our collective financial support from WVU athletics at this time, I'm afraid next year may never come.
I am sorry for being so long-winded.
